Payment cards (including credit cards and debit cards) provide buyers with a way to conduct business with merchants without having to present cash or checks. To accept payment cards for goods and services, merchants send a message, typically from a point of sale (a “POS”) to the merchant's own bank (the “acquiring bank”) for approval of the payment card. The acquiring bank sends a message, typically an ISO 8583 message, to the bank which issued the payment card (the “authorizing bank”), asking for authorization of the transaction. The authorizing bank responds either with a grant or denial of authorization. Settlement of the transaction occurs using a different set of messages, which typically occurs at another time.
One problem with known systems is that the approval system at the authorizing bank is typically relatively inflexible. These approval systems are often limited to determining only if the payment cardholder (the buyer) has enough funds remaining to make the purchase. While it might be advantageous to modify the approval system at the authorizing bank, this would involve reprogramming the approval system, with a concomitant risk of error. Alternatively, while it might be advantageous to have the authorizing bank make a request for a more sophisticated authorization from an other device, this would involve integrating a new procedure into the approval system, again with a concomitant risk of error.